In 1992, Marvel Comics outed the first mainstream gay comic book character, Northstar. To which I promptly though, who? I never was much of a comic book geek, but I know most of the major characters – okay, the really major ones anyway – and I had never heard of Northstar. Nevertheless this announcement deservedly got a lot of attention.

But it didn’t exactly rock the world.

When Archie Comics, that paean to middle-America and it’s values, had a same-sex marriage last December, fearful heterosexuals (including all half dozen of the Million Moms) were shocked. Shocked, I tell ya! But Kevin Keller was a new character reflecting a new reality.

Ah, but today the comic book community caught the nation’s attention. Today’s outing is a bit too big to miss: the Green Lantern is gay.

Coming in at Number 4 on ComicBookResourse’s listing, the Green Lantern is among the biggies, one of the superheros that everyone knows. Last year’s movie staring Ryan Reynolds pulled in boxoffice in excess of $200 million. This is no Northstreet, um Northbank, umm Northwhatever, this is a major figure in the world that is imagined in basements and treehouses across the nation, distinctly recognizable in the endless parade of “what are you exactly?” that knocks on your door on October 31st.

Unlike Superman, there are actually more than one Green Lantern. It’s more of a job title that various humans are assigned across the 70 years that Green Lantern has fought for justice in brightest day or darkest night. In the August 2012 issue of Earth 2, DC Comics is reintroducing their first Green Lantern, Alan Scott, along with what appears to be his boyfriend Sam (who may be Japanese).

No doubt Fox Commentators will be offended. And all the Million Moms will be apoplectic. And anti-gays will accuse DC Comics of trying to brainwash their impressionable children with perverse values.

But comic books don’t teach values; they reflect where society is at any given point. And that place is getting better every day.

There was that story about Kyle, a young office intern who was the victim of a gay bashing after thugs saw him kiss his boyfriend.
The Green Lantern, caught the criminals, and made them hallucinate a taste of their own medicine. Leaving them babbling, drooling and utterly helpless to harm anyone else again.

Kyle was left in a coma, and permanently damaged. I lost track of the storyline after that and my comic book buying budget got kind of tight.

But this outing didn’t surprise me, actually or any of us that know the different personas that the Green Lantern has taken on.

The Green Lantern is no “biggie”. It’s one of the lamest of the lame, and it’s worth noting that the one attempt to spin this franchise into a film may have done well at the box office, but it was universally panned — don’t expect a sequel.

This is yet another sop to the gay crowd… it has the greasy feel of pandering. I’m not sure whether I’d prefer that we don’t get our “quota” of retro-homo’ed characters, or whether I’d prefer that if we did, it wouldn’t be subordinate 3rd tier throw-away characters.

I think my frank preference would be to see, as time and life moves forward, superheroes who just happen to be gay.

Reading a book right now by Sci Fi / Fantasy superstar author Richard K. Morgan (Steel Remains) where the swashbuckling sword wielding lug of a hero just happens to have a soft spot for stable boys and butch tavern owners. Well, maybe not so soft – Morgan delights in giving his character as full a description of sex as you get for hetero characters in any other fantasy genre. Shortly before (and after) our hero engages in sword battles that result in missing limbs or internal organs for the bad guys, of course.

“I think my frank preference would be to see, as time and life moves forward, superheroes who just happen to be gay.”—Really, from the little there is to tell from the preview, it seems like that’s exactly what this is.

I don’t think this is just a sop to the gay crowd. The writer James Robinson has a long history of writing gay characters. The character previously had a gay son (Obsidian is one of the first DC heroes I remember coming out) but after it all got retconned Alan Scott is not old enough to have a son, so the writer decided to make him gay instead. I think this was a fair choice in the reboot and not just a sop. I think DC’s media hype pretending it was a huge character was disengenuous.

It’s hardly a “sop to the gay crowd” — it’s DC playing catch-up. Marvel has a number of gay characters, some of whom has been around since the early ’90s.

And, given that popular culture reflects attitudes, I’d say it’s DC finally recognizing that we’re everywhere. If they want to cash in — well, publishing is a business, whether you’re publishing romance novels or comics. Whether you consider Green Lantern a “biggie” or not, it’s an attempt worth encouraging. I’m going to have to add Earth 2 to X-Factor, Young Avengers, and Astonishing X-Men on my “keep up with this” list.

Another thought, re “pandering” — if you want to see pandering in the comics industry, look at Japan: manga is hugely fan-driven. Artists will even develop story lines and characters based on fan input, especially in boys’ love manga.

(And it occurs to me that if the perennially clueless OMM ever get wind of that genre, their knickers will get so twisted that they won’t have any circulation below the waist.)

Well, it’s not exactly new for DC. Just having a gay *male* main character. In other series Kate Kane/Batwoman, Maggie Sawyer and Rene Montoya/The Question are lesbians and there are some other minor LGTB characters here and there. Batwoman has her own series now – though it focuses way too much on the supernatural for my taste.

“Gotham Central” has a great four-parter called ‘Half a Life’ in which Montoya is outed and has to deal with her friends and family afterwards. It won multiple awards.

“Itâ€™s hardly a â€œsop to the gay crowdâ€ â€” itâ€™s DC playing catch-up. Marvel has a number of gay characters, some of whom has been around since the early â€™90s.”

Of course Japanese comics have been including LGBT characters even longer than that and there’s even entire genres of Japanese comics devoted exclusively to gay and lesbian romance stories. Having said that, I think this would only count as a sop if DC merely made this announcement and then did nothing with the character’s sexuality in a storyline at all, a la JK Rowling. If in a few months DC does absolutely nothing with the Green Lantern’s sexuality in a comic book, we’ll know then that it was just a marketing plot. Having said that, I’m glad it’s the Green Lantern they revealed to be gay and not someone the mainstream public wouldn’t know a thing about, like Plastic Man.

The DC universe just went through a restructuring. As I understand it, it’s a bit of a do-over, in which their heroes’ story lines go back to the beginning but set in today’s time instead of the 40s. (apologies to comic geeks if I got that wrong).

Part of going back in the Green Lantern story makes Alan Scott too young to have a superhero son, so Obsidian had to be cut. And as Obsidian was gay, that left them without a gay superhero at a time in which they are trying to be more diverse.

Someone at some tradeshow panel suggested making Alan Scott/Green Lantern gay instead, and the idea stuck.

We want inclusion. When we get it, it could be seen as a sop or a token. I prefer to see it as inclusion.

In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.

When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.

In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.

From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”

On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.

Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!

Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.

Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.

Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.

The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.